We have been sub-contracting a guy to work with us on our more technical irrigation projects. He comes from a family of irrigation installers and probably has 3,000+ installs under his belt. He can design, sell, and run a crew. He has expressed interest in working for us full time. What is a guy like this worth in the industry?

Stillwater

08-18-2011, 03:48 AM

from a business owner perspective and in all seriousness... as little as possible. Yes.... I realise this wasn't very helpful...

rawtoxic

09-06-2011, 01:02 AM

Our guy that does irrigation for me is at $25 an hour. On the books not 1099. So actual out of pocket is $30ish.

All his jobs are under bid hours. Everything is clean and well done. Is personable with customers. They ask for him to specifically come out.

When he is selling and bidding jobs for us, hourly rate + 5% cost of job maybe more on small ones we use a sliding scale. Since our guy runs the crews I give him 30% of labor under bid as a bonus too. I have our guys using personal trucks with company gas so our pay rates maybe a little higher than average to account for them using their own vehicles (IMO - one of the best things an under 10 person company can go to)

So lets say Adam sells a $8000 job one week. Then he gets paid 5 hours or so for doing the bid and footwork ($125). Commission on bid ($400). He's usually under hours on labor so lets say ($125) bonus. And normal wages for a 40 hour work week ($1000). Then add a few side repairs we usually squeeze in + ($150). So we pay him about $1500-$1700 per week.

Adam is on staff about 6 months a year. Runs a Snow Cat for the local ski area in the Winter! I use him as an equipment operator and a helper for stonework which he is also good at!